


sea salt-sweet

by heoneymin



Category: K-pop, Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, Introspection, M/M, oh and there's like 5 seconds of jookyun but it's not important overall, really though this is pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 04:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17155721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heoneymin/pseuds/heoneymin
Summary: —　Between shore and sky and sea / Some distance away, you'll find me(Minhyuk finally finds his favorite place, and Jooheon learns how to be adored)





	sea salt-sweet

**Author's Note:**

> Self indulgent JooHyuk fluff? Self indulgent JooHyuk fluff. I mostly wanted to experiment with metaphors and imagery tbh so don't expect much plot.

     

 

       ↳ (salt)

 

The year after Minhyuk turned eighteen, he moved to a city near the sea.

It didn't bother him that the college he had chosen wasn't all that prestigious. The dorms were neat and reasonably priced, with plenty of fast food places within walking distance, and the classes he could pick from looked interesting enough. He hadn't decided on a major yet, anyway.

Of course people asked him why he had chosen this one unremarkable school over the dozens of others like it. He always vaguely replied 'the location' with a smile. Whatever conclusions they drew from those words was probably a more reasonable explanation than _because I love the sea_.

But that had been the deciding factor.

Although Minhyuk hadn't grown up near the water, he had grown up loving it. His childhood memories were filled with dolphin plushies and picture books of rainbow-colored fish. His parents took him to the aquarium for his seventh birthday where he begged his father for stickers and cups and little statuettes from the souvenir shop. His high school notebooks had pages dedicated to doodles of his favorite animals. Even years later, nothing entranced him more than the ocean and its mysteries, its hidden depths and its beauty.

Not until he met his best friend's neighbor two years later.

The boy stood out like a sore thumb at Kihyun's birthday party, with hair dyed brighter than Minhyuk's own and piercing eyes fixed to something across the room. A shiver ran down Minhyuk's spine when Kihyun called him over and introduced him as Jooheon, a music major, only just moved into the room next door.

In an instant, he was smitten.

With the rhythmic way Jooheon spoke, lips and tongue curling around each syllable, with his smile and his dimples and how he loved music more than anything else in the world.

Each time they met, the feeling grew stronger. One more conversation, one more meeting, again and again, and Minhyuk came to love him like he loved the lull of the tides and waves crashing onto the rocks. Like the smooth motion of stingrays gliding through the water and dolphins shrieking in joy. So full and big and all-encompassing as the whales he held dear, dearer than all, except maybe now he liked Jooheon that much too.

His feelings were eternal motion, ebb and flood, wavering in intensity but always there.

Jooheon hummed yet-unwritten songs into the winter wind and Minhyuk wanted to do nothing more than pluck the music out of the air onto his waiting lips. Squinted eyes and sullen silences and Jooheon was retreating back once more, only to return to Minhyuk with the sunrise.

It was new. It was frightening.

His parents used to say—almost hopefully—that love would anchor him, and Minhyuk had dreaded the thought of being tied down. But even at their worst, when Minhyuk would cling too much or stray too far, when Jooheon isolated himself or was too stubborn, it never felt like that.

They held hands and walked along the pier, the markets, the tucked-away streets lined with little odd shops. There were flowers and iced coffee and blueberry-honey-flavored cupcakes from the lady that owned the bakery across the station. They bickered and argued and made up with kisses and disbelieving laughter because how could they ever think to stay away from one another?

By the time Minhyuk turned twenty-two, he had discovered the sea was most beautiful by Jooheon's side at the shore.

 

 

            ↳ (sweet)

 

Jooheon wasn't made for soft and pretty things.

That was what he truly believed. He scoffed when the kindergarten teachers called him cute and family members cooed over his dimples. He was a boy, and boys were brash and playful and definitely not cute.

Then puberty came and kicked his previously held belief out the window, all because of one specific transfer student. He was an underclassman with dark eyes and a deep voice who had the absolutely weirdest laugh Jooheon had ever heard. They didn't share any classes but they took the same bus, and Jooheon couldn't stop staring and thinking—

 _Cute_.

Changkyun and him became quick friends and once tried to be more, and when that didn't work out they settled for the sort of friendship where you would help one another hide a body without question. Or at the very least, provide an alibi when the dean's car got— _tastefully!_ —re-decorated.

College brought with it new friends and experiences and while some people still called him cute, Jooheon no longer minded it as much. Changkyun was cute too after all, in an odd sort of way, and so was Hoseok if you looked past his rather intimidating build.

Not minding something didn't mean Jooheon liked it though.

As such, he was nothing short of baffled at himself when he discovered that being fawned over could make his heart race.

He had only lived in his new dorm for a couple of months at best when he got invited to his neighbor's birthday party. He had only intended to stay a short while, to socialize and get acquainted with the other students in the building. Jooheon definitely hadn't expected to meet the most gorgeous, friendliest, and _loudest_ person he had ever laid eyes on.  

In the dead of night, Minhyuk lit the room up brighter than any sun ever could.

From that moment on Minhyuk was simply always _there_ , right within reach, and he was warm and harsh and gentle all at once. Blinding and brutal and nurturing and brilliant. He was blunt in all his honesty, generous with his affection. Jooheon was drowning under the onslaught.

_( "Adorable -"_

_"You're so pretty I could die -"_

_"My Honey -" )_

He felt like he was lacking space, _air_ , the distance to think things through clearly. At the same time, whenever he acted on those feelings of discomfort and pulled away, his heart ached. So Jooheon did what he did best and listened to that steady thrum in his chest above all else. It rose up in perfect harmony with Minhyuk's laugh. It sunk to the pit of his stomach when they fought. But they persevered, and without fail there would be a phone call, a note, an apology whispered in the dark, and their lives would slot back together again a bit stronger than before.

Jooheon never stood a chance.

Minhyuk reminded him of the taste of salt on his skin and clumsily built sandcastles. The water that soaked into his clothes when it rained. The far-off beat of music carrying down the beach. Spilled soda and sticky ice cream in summer, smooth jazz and gingerbread in winter. Muted autumn tones and light spring breezes.

Minhyuk called him beautiful and perfect and held him so gently it made him want to cry when he thought about it for too long. Minhyuk was an asshole that always stole the last slice of pizza and pinched his cheeks and scared him on purpose with ghost stories. Minhyuk entwined their fingers underneath the covers and sang hoarse lullabies when Jooheon was too high-strung to fall sleep. He was everywhere. Every word, every touch of his etched unseen constellations into Jooheon's skin, leaving little dots of sunlight in their wake.

Minhyuk was the danger of open sea and Jooheon's northern star all at once, and when he voiced the thought one night, Minhyuk called Jooheon his hidden treasure in return.

In the space between kisses, Jooheon decided that he liked being thought of as precious.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this during some serious [soft joohyuk hours]...as you can probably tell. Anyway, you can find me on twitter [ @heoneymin](https://twitter.com/heoneymin), my stan account's pretty new so just shoot me a DM if you wanna talk/be mutuals!
> 
> PS: I didn't intend to write the Jooheon POV at all but here we are.
> 
> +EDIT: now that I've watched the mx future diary episode I should probably write more minhyuk=earth and jooheon=trees/landscape metaphors instead of water ones huh?


End file.
